Nano continued

While my word count is certainly coming along nicely I have found myself struggling to get through this story. July (Julnowrimo) was so much easier! I blame the fact that I'm just that much more interested in the world of The Obsidian Shifters. By comparison Temerity seems like a rather drab world (and the characters aren't as fleshed out which only adds to the difficulty in writing about their adventures). But all that is perfectly acceptable because this is Nanowrimo – I'm not aiming to write the best novel ever, I'm just trying to get this story out of my head (to clear the way for the editing process for Obsidian Shifters) and have fun in the process.

I wish November was in September. My social life here in South Africa has gone in overdrive ever since Nano started – I've been to the kick-off party, two write-ins (so far) and more is on the way. It's sad to realise that now when I'm finally making friends I'll leave soon. Next weekend? Saturday write-in with the same bunch of wonderful people I've spent last weekend with and on Sunday it's time for the half-way party (together with the wrimos (Wrimo (n): A person participating in Nanowrimo) of Pretoria – we'll be meeting in a Mugg & Bean in Midrand). If it's good to be around people (roughly) my age ... it's even better to be around other writers. In fact, it's amazing. Write-ins work better than I had expected, too. Yes, you 'waste' quite a bit of time just chatting away and socialising... but even so both Saturday and Sunday have been days with the highest word count since starting Nano (almost 4000 words on those days). Word wars are partially to blame (Try to write as many words as possible in 15 minutes time! It's like a race (with the only prize being the words you write, so everyone wins!). Michelle (aka 'WinterWhite') has been amazing – because I don't have transport she agreed to take me to the write-ins! I'm so happy I don't have to miss all the meetings. Writing is a lot of fun as it is, but having the actual – real life – support to keep on going even when it's starting to get tough has added a whole new dimension to Nano.

So to share some more pictures:

Sunday group


Writer's fuel! (Halloumi + sweet red pepper wrap)


Saturday

To summarise some of the things my main character had to go through, so far:
* Buried a relative
* Was drugged and semi-abducted
* Joined a rebel force
* Saw a man die in front of her eyes
* Tried and failed to convince a friend-possibly-turning-lover to stay with her
*Had a very narrow escape and had to resort to ... drastic measures to dissuade a member of the religious order of the Idaites to follow her.
* Came very, very close to falling into a stream of human waste.
* Gave away food tickets to a bunch of pre-teens that mugged her party at the market
* Insulted a man in front of his mother's eyes – without realising the woman was his mother (and her friend)
* Found an excuse to leave a drunk guy and his son behind with a crazy barman
* Had to transcribe an old map (first from the Jirandean script to the New Idaite form of writing, then try some homophones to get the real message)
* Lost two beautiful and perfectly good Fire Prints in the process of stealing boring volumes of Idaite history and plans
* Contact another nation's leader (ok, her superiors did that, but still) to ask for some help in their fight against the Idaites
* Deal with declining numbers of their Freedom Army and try to fix this

Some random observations I've noticed about my stories:
* Somehow my characters like to eat, a lot. And I enjoy writing about what they're having. In less than 25k words I've managed to mention porridge at least three times, soup or stew at least twice and... Did I mention my rebels have their home in a basement under a bakery?!
* Dye makers. If I need a random profession for someone, they turn out to be a dye maker. I have a family of them in Obsidian Shifters and now my main character's grandma was one, too.
* I like names starting with the letter T. I actually used the name 'Tera' in both Obsidian Shifters as well as Temerity. I had to rename Temerity's Tera to Denla (because I also have a Tesza and Tobi – too many two-syllable T-names, oops!)
* From my writing you can't tell I'm interested in languages. Just kidding, I've mentioned 'adenoidal' voices, have a character with a strong accent + 'strange' intonation, another character that sounds a bit off because of 'long disuse of the language that was once so familiar to her' (she left the country as a child, apparently – so she sounds outdated and a bit too formal). Oh, yes and I based the test to join the rebel force on useless language skills. That's just silly. Most 'See I'm a language student!!!"-thing I did though? Make a list of my character's names, country names etc. In IPA. (Because I might forget that Jirande is /dʒi:'rɑndə/ or Niroh /'ni:ro/ Idaie and Idaite are /i:'dajə/ and /i:də'ait/)
(And that's ignoring the fact that writers usually kind of like languages. It's your main tool, after all.)

School and other things
I'm going to Japari on Mondays and Thursdays now (to evade the long wait after school on Wednesday when my cousin plays his cricket matches – they last forever!). This also gives me some time on Wednesdays to work on another project I've started... (Lots of projects going on at the moment.)
This week I just try and keep the grade sevens quiet during exams.

I also finally managed to get my stamp (which turned out to be a sticker, oh well. How disappointing.) in my passport at Home Affairs. Another trip on Wednesday fixed the problem – I got lucky and arrived just as they were letting the people coming for collection inside. They then took our receipts (scary! Because that meant I had to stay there until... well, whenever they would decide to return my receipt or give me my sticker.). I got a fright when the security guard started to hand out receipts and called 'my name'. It turned out to be someone else (a guy, too) with a name like 'Charidza' ... Well, he had to go back home and wait another week or so because his application was still pending. Mine, however, was ready and after another hour or so I finally got my extended visitor's permit! The 'all clear'-sign. I can go home on December 13th without any problems. I'm looking forward to it.

Nanoing (should be a word)

Day two of Nanowrimo 2010 and so far I'm doing fine. I'm still sane and I'm still managing my daily word count so far. In fact I've gone over the minimum by quite a bit during day one and two. (My total is (or should be) displayed in the top left of this page.)



This Sunday I attended the Jo'burg Nanowrimo Halloween Hat Kick-off Party. I met some amazing people there and had lots of (insane writers) fun. I even managed to get transport on Saturdays - Michelle (aka WinterWhite) is going to take me to the write-ins! (What is a write-in? Well... Imagine a bunch of people sitting in Star Bucks (or the 'Mugg & Bean' here in SA - which is much better than Star Bucks anyway) with their laptops, trying to reach the word count they should have reached earlier during the week.) So I'll be going there every Saturday!


Besides meeting some other Nano participants from Jo'burg and the surrounding area we also got our 'nano toolkits' to keep us going when the writing gets a bit more challenging...


In a cup!

I think it's amazing what the organisers did for us!


The whole cup was made up out of (not counting the calender and bookmark) "Horribly bad puns" (quoting one of the people who made the things).

* A piece or rope to help you when you're at the end of yours.
* Inflatable origami bunnies* (*plotbunnies - With a plot!)
* A marble
* A straw (to suck the life back into you after nano)
* A stirring-stick(?) - to stir up ideas
* Hair elastics (to keep you from pulling out your hair) etc. etc.

Needless to say, I love my toolkit a lot.

After all the fun on Sunday it was time to start writing on Monday! Temerity was off to a good start with over 3500 words during the first day of the month. Today I managed to get to 6k+ (I'm aiming for at least 2500 a day - this will mean I'll reach the 50k early, but that's fine.).

Because it wouldn't be fun to keep all the good stuff to myself I'll share some of my favourite sentences/excerpts every update.

"I can't tell you, I'm afraid. But a mutual acquaintance might be able to tell you more." The vague instruction fuelled Tesza's desire to do something to support one of Jirande's old leaders – well one of their offspring, at the very least – even more.
"As you wish, my ruler." The words were followed by a lousy mock curtsey and Leone smiled.
"Don't ever do that again, or I'll feed you to those Idaite dogs." The woman's intonation had nothing to do with the words she had spoken and Tesza finally burst out laughing.

My favourite sentence of day 1 (part of chapter 2):
A fire was blazing in the hearth, turning the place into a refuge from the cold - if you didn't mind your refuge smelling of stale beer and unwashed workmen, that is. - (Inns are smelly places.)

Day 2 (also chapter 2)
Careful as he was with information, this attentiveness did not seem to extend to carrying unconscious girls to places unbeknownst to them.

Needless to say I'm having way too much fun throwing my characters into impossible situations and letting them struggle their way out only to end up in the mess that is the next major plot point.

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On to other things though, because while I would like to say that Nanowrimo IS my life at the moment, it isn't ... not completely.

No Japari this week. On Monday we were supposed to go to Home Affairs to collect my stamp in my passport that is supposed to be a visa. In the end we didn't because Mondays are the busiest days and it was already ten before we could even leave (we had to help my uncle moving the office).

Then today I actually went to Home Affairs... Usually they make a list with the names of the people trying to get into the office to collect or apply for some permit. Today however the list was nowhere to be seen. (After my aunt had dropped me off at the place and would only be back at 12/half past 12!) Eventually one of the other people waiting suggested I go inside to see if I could get my name on the list. (They keep the gate closed and only let 10 people in at a time... The security guard was nowhere to be seen and the gate was open, so upstairs I went.)
Upstairs there were more people waiting outside of the actual office. After about twenty minutes a female security guard came to us and... spoke in Zulu (or one of the other African languages) to everyone - ignoring me. After she closed the door again I asked the other people what she had said - apparently she would be with us 'soon'. Another 10 minutes later she told us to go outside again. I did. (Although no-one else made a move.) Back outside I decided to go back in because I needed to get on the list - if only I knew I wasn't waiting for nothing!

After more waiting and asking the security guard finally told us that there was a 'crisis' and they wouldn't be taking down any more names for the list today. We were to come back tomorrow. Such a waste of time, petrol and energy... But as my aunt says "This IS a third world country, after all." So I phoned Japari to let them know that I'm struggling with Home Affairs-issues and won't be coming in this week.

Luckily one of the other people there lent me their phone so I could ask my aunt to fetch me early...

Waiting at Home Affairs: